Dairy Research Institute partners with university on child nutrition program
Birth to age three is a critical time for establishing food preferences, immune tolerance and the gut microbiome. This program intends to define how dairy products contribute to the growth and development of young children.
The Dairy Research Institute is providing $1 million of support over five years to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study how children acquire healthy eating habits. The research is expected to provide unique insights into how individual biology interacts with the family environment to promote healthy eating habits, including milk and dairy consumption, in young children. It is one of the first longitudinal studies to take a look at the interaction between biological and environmental factors in predicting eating habits, starting at birth.
The Family Resiliency Center and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the university will spearhead the project, named “Strong Kids 2: A cells-to-society approach to nutrition.”
“This research project is timely and important as we know that birth to three years of age is a critical time for establishing food preferences, immune tolerance and the gut microbiome,” said Sharon Donovan, professor of Food Science & Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. “We are very excited to be working with the Dairy Research Institute to define how dairy products contribute to the growth and development of young children” she added.